Five Minutes To Midnight
by MayFairy
Summary: "Tenzin sent me a letter asking for help with the repairs on Air Temple Island…I told him to shove it. I did take a look before coming here, though. That was some masterful work." "…thanks." A week after her break up with Tenzin, Lin receives a midnight visitor in the form of the one person who cares enough to come and see if she's okay. Kyalin, mentions of Linzin and past!Kyalin.


**My first Legend of Korra fic! (And it's not Korrasami, oddly enough.) I couldn't get this idea out of my head and Kyalin has consumed my entire brain today so...here you go. Kyalin fluff, with sleepy!Lin to boot. **

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Tenzin was the final straw.

Lin had given up on gaining affection from her mother even before she had disappeared, her father remained a glaring question mark on her family tree, and Su's betrayal had cut deeper and left her even more solitary than before. Tenzin, her beloved numbskull of a boyfriend, had been more or less all she had left.

Until now.

A more sensible part of Lin's brain knew it had been inevitable. That the only living Airbender couldn't very well settle down with someone who never wanted kids and in that regard they had been doomed from the start, but him leaving her for that Air Acolyte (who was fifteen years younger than him, to boot!) stung.

The fury that had consumed her for a week since the break up had given way into bitter melancholy that had Lin wallowing in her house when not at work at the police station. Not necessarily the most mature action for a woman of thirty six, but she just couldn't face Tenzin again yet, even if her reaction to his breaking up with her would hopefully keep him afraid to approach her for a while.

Lin had only cried the night of the break up, once she had returned home from Air Temple Island, and she wasn't proud of doing so even then. She took after her mother in her belief that crying was a sign of weakness, and as such never let anyone to see her on the very seldom occasions she actually allowed herself to.

Now, in her simple one room apartment overlooking the harbour and Air Temple Island (which, she noted with twisted satisfaction, still looked _terrible_), she clutched her newly poured tea and was thankful that the ache in her heart was no longer trying to overflow in the form of tears.

It unfortunately didn't mean she was any less miserable.

She sipped her tea as she crossed the room to regard her reflection in the mirror. She knew she was still beautiful, in what others called "a tough kind of way", but even after more than a decade she struggled to accept her scars as part of her appearance. The unexpected vanity was ironic considering that she was the child of a blind woman.

Su hadn't needed to accidentally whip her face to leave scars on her older sister. Lin hated the idea of not being able to hide where she had been hurt like she did with emotional pain. Physical scars told stories for the world to see, even if Lin hoped that most would never learn of the origin of hers, or would forget if they already knew.

With a sigh, she drained her tea cup, put it in the sink, and got changed into a tank top and leggings before climbing into bed.

Sleep came easily, perhaps because being miserable and lonely was exhausting, but she had always been a light sleeper and so woke when she heard the rattling of her door. By the time she had sat up in bed, the rattling had ceased, but not before Lin's sleepy mind conjured fantasies of Tenzin bursting into her bedroom with apologies and pleas for her to take him back.

It only took a second for her sense to take hold of her. She flushed in the dark at her own folly, a few forbidden tears escaping her eyes, tears of anger that the stupid fretful bald man with arrow tattoos could turn her so silly.

Just as she sniffed and wiped at her leaking eyes, the door to her apartment opened and she went completely stiff in anticipation of an intruder.

"Lin?"

The voice was unmistakable and Lin relaxed a fraction as Kya came into view in the slice of moonlight streaming through one of the windows.

"I forgot I gave you a key all those years ago," Lin muttered, and Kya smirked.

"That's what you get for staying in the same crappy apartment for all this time," her old friend said, dumping a bag on the floor and approaching the bed, "Woah. You look like crap."

Lin didn't need a mirror to know she would be sporting rumpled black hair and reddened eyes, and just gave a hopeless sort of shrug in reply.

"Tenzin sent me a letter asking for help with the repairs on Air Temple Island," Kya continued, sitting down on the edge of the bed and giving Lin a meaningful look. Unable to discern how she felt about that, Lin just raised an eyebrow, making Kya chuckle. "Yeah, I told him to shove it. I did take a look before coming here, though. That was some masterful work."

Lin couldn't help it, her mouth quirked in the smallest of smiles. "Thanks."

"The kid thing was always gonna screw you two up eventually." Kya didn't seem surprised or discouraged when Lin's smile faded at her blunt words. "And I know you know that and probably would prefer anything but hearing it again, but the sooner you accept it the better. Truth be told, I always thought you two had the romantic compatibility of a turtle duck and a moose bear."

"Which one am I?"

"Well, given that Tenzin tends to quack when he gets annoyed-"

Lin sniggered, though her eyes had dropped to her hands, which were only just starting to unclench. "You never liked us together."

"No, I didn't," Kya admitted easily, "You were never going to work and frankly you deserve better."

"He's your _brother_, Kya."

"Yeah, and he was also Dad's blatant favourite. Doesn't do him a lot of favours in my eyes." When Lin rolled her eyes, Kya grabbed Lin's chin to be sure they were looking at each other, and then dropped her hand. "You Beifongs weren't the only ones to not have perfect parents." _Parent, _Lin irritably corrected. "You think Dad didn't dote on his only Airbender kid? You grew up with us, Lin, you know he did."

"He still cared about you and Bumi a hell of a lot more than Mom ever did about me and Su," Lin said harshly, scowling at her friend, "Now do you want to play most neglected child or do you want to tell me what the hell you're doing in my apartment in the middle of the night?"

"I'm here to make sure you're okay, you dummy," Kya said, newly cheerful. "Since no one else is gonna do it, with Bumi busy in the Earth Kingdom. Besides, making you smile was alwaysmy job. Tenzin just did his best to cover for me for a while."

Lin snorted to show just what she thought of that statement. She would never do something quite so undignified in front of anyone else, but this was Kya.

"You're fairly self-assured for someone who _also_ dumped me for selfish reasons," she said, no accusation in her tone despite the words.

"Yeah, but I didn't dump you for someone fifteen years younger."

"Given that you were twenty three at the time, I'd have been concerned if you had."

Kya chuckled. She and Lin, with three and a half years between them, had been close from a relatively young age, and begun dating towards the end of their teenage years. When Lin had expressed her wish to work under her mother in the Republic City police force, Kya had made it plain that living in a city was not something she wished to do in the slightest. Lin had been crushed that Kya refused to come with her, but in hindsight it had been foolish of her to ever think she would, given Kya's spirited nature.

Calling it a dumping was harsh and actually rather inaccurate, given that they had parted on disappointed but alright terms, but the fact that Kya took responsibility for her part in it warmed Lin's fragile heart a little. Lin knew that Kya's travelling and 'finding herself' had been incredibly important and didn't begrudge her. Hadn't been able to for more than a couple of days after hearing about it, actually.

The sudden silence between them now was comfortable, as it had always been. Lin regarded her friend carefully all the while. They hadn't seen each other for two years, since Aang's funeral, and Lin could remember how tightly Kya had clutched her in her grief for her father at the service (and sure, so had Tenzin, but she didn't want to think about him right now). Only Lin had known how secretly upset Kya was that she had been the one forced to look after Katara after that, because her travelling wasn't considered as important as Tenzin or Bumi's work.

Kya was as beautiful now as she had been then and in her youth, and Lin found herself noticing it properly for the first time in years. Her brown hair was long and in its usual mess of a ponytail, while her blue eyes watched Lin with a softness that no one but Tenzin had shown to Lin in a long time. Given everything that had happened, she supposed Kya really would be the only one to look at her like that now.

"So, is this your first time leaving the South Pole since you stayed?" Lin asked, feeling the odd urge to reach out and touch Kya but keeping it under wraps. "Should I feel flattered?"

"Yeah," Kya said wryly. Her hands fidgeted a little even though she didn't _seem _nervous. "I came straight here when I got the letter. Why else would I be here in the middle of the night?"

Lin shrugged. "I gave up trying to predict anything you do a long time ago."

"Well, right now, I'm here until I'm sure you're alright." Kya's voice was firm and her hand came to rest on Lin's uncovered shoulder. "Because that's what friends are for."

The thank you required sat on Lin's tongue but didn't leave it. Instead of speaking, Lin just sighed and let her gaze drop. When Kya spoke again, it wasn't quite a whisper but it was low and ever so soft.

"Lin."

Upon looking up at Kya, Lin found herself being hugged tightly, and after a moment of remaining stiff she sank into the welcoming arms of her oldest and closest friend. Somehow it was then that Lin felt a strange sense of peace. The waterbender was right, after all, in saying that Lin and Tenzin would never have been able to make each other happy in the long run. It had been stupid of them to begin a relationship in the first place when Tenzin had a duty to rebuild the Air Nomads.

The second she felt herself accept that, it was as if the weight of ten boulders lifted from her. Being sensible at heart, the moment she knew something truly wasn't meant to be, she found it rather easy to move on. Given that it had only been a week there was still necessary time to heal, but Lin knew that without the acceptance she had just found she would have been heartbroken and sulky for months. Now it was just her pride more than anything that needed to repair, that and the part of her that had come to love Tenzin but was not quite sensible enough to let go of him as easily as most of her just had.

"Thank you, Kya," she murmured into her shoulder, "You just saved me from a world of misery."

"I know."

They remained there for a good while, and Lin was not about to move from a hug when she received so few. Kya smelt like incense and blueberries and it brought back memories from two decades before of many an afternoon spent together either at the South Pole, on Air Temple Island, or exploring Republic City when it was still getting on its feet. Afternoons of ranting about their parents and siblings, afternoons of actual fun (a rarity in Lin's life once she had hit fifteen), and quiet moments out of view of their parents and siblings.

Sokka had been the first to find out about their relationship, when Lin had been eighteen and he'd caught them making out behind the healing house at the South Pole. Thankfully, he'd laughed and thought it was the best thing to happen all year and promised to keep it quiet, though all their parents and siblings found out a few months later after an incident at the dinner table involving a suspicious Katara, a surprisingly observant Bumi, and Sokka letting it all slip over desert. Lin had been rather flattered at Aang's delight over the whole thing.

It was odd to remember the happiness they had shared in their small number of years together, and the numbing sadness of the realisation that it would have to end because their lives were destined to go in very different directions.

It was even stranger to pull away from her friend, look her in the eye, and be hit with a wave of longing for what had once been. Lin reached her hand out to touch Kya's cheek. When their eyes met, Lin felt both lost and found at the warmth in the other woman's eyes.

Next thing she knew, Kya had leaned in (or perhaps Lin had pulled her), and their lips met softly. It should have been wrong, or at least ill-timed and too soon given that Lin had been crying over Kya's brother before her arrival, but somehow it wasn't. It was just...right.

When they broke apart, they just stared at each other, but Lin didn't take her hand from where it still rested on Kya's face.

"This is the real reason you didn't like me dating Tenzin, isn't it?" The Beifong asked, and Kya nodded.

"The other reasons too, but yeah, I was jealous," she said, shrugging, "But I still wanted to travel, and I'd been with other people, so how could I complain? I'd have been the world's biggest hypocrite."

Lin couldn't argue with that. But hell if Kya speaking up earlier couldn't have saved this whole mess. "You know, it never occurred to me that we might work together in the future," she admitted, frowning at how ridiculous the notion was when she thought about it, "I was so busy thinking about how I'd lost you that I never considered the possibility of finding you again later. Maybe I'd never have taken Tenzin seriously if I had."

"Yeah, well, you're not known for being the most reasonable person, Beifong," Kya said wryly. She smiled at Lin. "But I'm thinking of staying in the city for a bit. You and I are about fifteen years late on a proper catch up."

"Is that what we're calling it now?" Lin murmured, absently catching a flyaway strand of Kya's hair in her fingers.

Kya kissed her again, sweetly. "I hope you realise I intend to crash here."

"Was kissing me part of what you intended when you came here?" Lin made it sound almost casual, but she couldn't help but wonder if Kya had planned this or if it had surprised the older woman as much as it had her.

"Not exactly, but I'm certainly not complaining."

Kya then moved out of Lin's reach and off the bed, and Lin fought the instinct to protest. It was a smart move in the end, because Kya started removing her outer clothing, and Lin planted her palms behind her so that she could lean back on them and watch intently while her heart started pounding in her chest.

"I should probably make it clear," Kya said, noticing Lin's eyes sweeping across her body and face as she undressed until she was left only in a short nightshirt with half sleeves. "I'm going to sleep with you, Lin, but I'm not going to _sleep with you_. Not right now."

Lin frowned. In her chest, disappointment mixed with an odd relief. The 'not right now' prevented rejection from taking up inside her too, because it only took a second to realise that Kya was simply being practical and considerate about the rawness of Lin's separation from Tenzin. She understood that whatever parts of Lin that weren't her head might be interested in her _now_, it wasn't a good idea to go into that until her head was given enough time to catch up, provided it actually wanted to at all.

"Fair enough," she replied in the end.

"Good. Shove over." Kya slid into the bed beside Lin and took the metalbender into an embrace that surprised the younger woman briefly but was very welcome all the same. "Now I want you to tell me everything, from the beginning. Get out every little thing you couldn't tell anyone. And get out any last tears, because if I know you there aren't going to be a lot but that doesn't mean they don't need to come out."

Lin hesitated. She couldn't decide if the idea of telling it all to Kya was bizarre or liberating or some mix of the two. "You sure?"

"Hell yes." Kya shifted so that she was lying on her back and Lin was curled against her side with Kya's arm around her. "I'm here, and I'm listening."

The simplicity of the gesture and the caring behind it put a lump in Lin's throat. She couldn't remember anyone doing anything similar for her before, not even Tenzin, because he had always been frightened of her moods and all but avoided her where possible.

Lin slung an arm across Kya's stomach, took a deep breath, and began to speak. With Kya's hand idly stroking her hair and voice murmuring comforting responses and agreements where appropriate, she let her story out piece by piece, cried into Kya's shirt, and felt most of the remaining poison in her heart leave her as she did so.

When it was all over Lin had time to feel Kya pressing her lips to her forehead before they both succumbed to sleep within seconds.

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**Given that I haven't written for this fandom let alone for these characters before, feedback would be greatly appreciated. Hope you guys enjoyed reading! I'll probably do a sort of sequel to this at some point. **

**-MayFairy :)**

**p.s. the story cover is from a google image search for young Kyalin, it's not mine. **


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